Many different planetary gears with one or several links are known from the state of the art. For lubrication and cooling of the planetary gears of the individual planetary gear sets of such planetary gears, it is generally known how to provide each of the bolts of the planet gears with lubricant bores—usually with a central bore and one or several radial bores—and to direct the lubricant via these lubricant bores to the bearing as well as to the gear tooth system of the respective planetary gears. For this purpose, the lubricant made available by a hydraulic system is usually guided, via a central shaft of the planetary transmission and suitably configured radial bores of this central shaft, into an area near the individual planetary gear sets, preferably into an area directly beside the respective planetary gear set, in such a way that the lubricant can flow by the respective planetary gear set in a radial direction as a consequence of the effect of the centrifugal force. Lubricant catchers, which are preferably mounted radially above the bolt on the planetary carrier of the respective planetary gear set, are usually provided to collect this radially inflowing or spraying lubricant in the region of the bolt of the respective planetary gear set. The lubricant collected in this way moves then easily in the lubricant bores of the bolts of the respective planetary gear sets and subsequently at the bearing and gear tooth system of the planet gears as a consequence of the effect of the centrifugal force of the inflowing lubricant.
Several structural examples for supplying lubricant to the planetary gears of a planetary gear set are known from DE 102 21 097 A, especially for a planetary gear set whose planetary carrier does not have a relative speed with respect to the adjacent component. A static seal, preferably by means of an O-ring, can be arranged instead of the lubricant catcher between the planetary carrier and the adjacent component connected to the planetary carrier in such a way, that a radially extending section of the planetary carrier and a radially extending section of the adjacent component jointly form a collection chamber in which the lubricant fed from the central shaft is collected and is fed from there to the lubricant bores of the planetary bolts.
It has been shown in the practice, that the operation at high speeds can be problematic with a lubricant supply to a planetary gear set that uses a lubricant catcher. Especially under the influence of the very high speeds of the planetary carrier, only part of the available lubricant reaches the intended lubricating points, since the lubricant or the lubricant mist flows past the lubricant catcher, when the planetary carrier speed increases and the lubricant catcher increasingly backflushes. The lubricant is no longer distributed evenly at the periphery in the lubricant catcher, when the planetary carrier speed increases and is also no longer distributed in the same proportions to the individual planetary bolts.